Save Me From Myself
by Dawsey
Summary: Rumbelle/Beauty and the Beast High School AU. Sean Gaston and Lacey Isabelle French are merely puppets in the power play between Regina Mills and Robert Gold, Noble High's most popular two students. But what happens when Lacey manages to touch Gold's heart and Regina senses that she is slowly becoming his weakness? Rating will probably change to M in later chapters.
1. All that glitters is not gold

_Author's note: Sadly, I don't own the characters or the show :) This story is highly AU and will most likely be rated M in later chapters. There will probably be a fair share of drama as well as Regina and Gold are trying to 'destroy' each other. I'm also going to write some chapters from Gold's POV and some from Lacey's POV._

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Gold's POV

Breaking up with Regina Mills in her own house, during her own stupid birthday party was calculated, cruel and not very gentleman-like at all. It was also the best thing I had done in weeks. Being a queen bitch, she may or may not have deserved it, it didn't matter to me. It had been a clever plan from beginning to end, and not once during the course of our so-called relationship did she suspect that I was manipulating her like there was no tomorrow.

Make no mistake, she was actually pretty smart for being the top cheerleader and most popular girl at Noble High School, but her emotions were standing in her way like the Great Wall Of China. On top of that, I had another clear advantage: She didn't know that I was playing a game.

She fell for me and that was her mistake. If she hadn't, she would have seen the bullshit I was pulling with her sooner or later. She was never that foolish. But they say that 'true love can blind you' and nothing is more accurate. For me, it made everything a whole lot easier. It was the proverbial 'cherry on top', because as soon as she was in love, she signed all the power over to me. And I did what was best for myself: I crushed her in front of everyone, ensuring that I was going to be the most popular guy at Noble High for what was left of my senior school year. I had unofficially 'ruled' the school for the past two years and I wasn't going to let anyone take that from me. Regina Mills, being the popular bitch she is, was always my biggest threat and I damn well recognized that.

She could twist just about anyone around her little finger and she knew how to get what she wanted. And she wanted popularity. There was just one tiny thing she sought more than that: ruling the school with someone at her side and that someone happened to be me. I'm sure after I broke up with her, she realized just how foolish she had been to think I was going to share any power with her.

The morning after the party, the news about our break-up was spreading all over Noble High and everyone seemed to avoid eye contact with me more than usual, which I was completely fine with. I didn't need them to like me. They knew by now that I wouldn't hesitate to bring anyone down, not even someone who was just as popular as I was.

Regina didn't show up to school at all that day, which was slightly disappointing. Was she really so much weaker than me that she was hiding in her room, weeping and crying herself dry? I had to admit that even I had expected more of her. She never seemed like the type of girl who would easily back down, not even when her heart had been broken. Maybe I had overestimated her competitive spirit or maybe it was just a clever way of trying to freak me out by wondering whether or not she was going to strike back. If she thought her absence would make me nervous, she was terribly wrong though, because I wasn't going to waste a second thought trying to over-analyze her actions.

The Queen Bitch didn't show up until a total of five days later. Her two 'besties' at her side, she walked through the hallways of Noble High like she owned the damn place, which made me inwardly smirk. She had lost a lot of power and followers the moment I broke up with her. People, especially high school students, are stupid and simple. If their beloved Queen gets treated like dirt by someone who is equally popular, it chips away at her image. Regina knew that just as well as I did. She had sunken a lot lower than she had ever wanted and it was all because of me. At the same time, I had managed to make her actually like me before dropping her like a hot potato and it was obvious by the cold look on her face, that she was completely and utterly done with me too. And not just that, she wanted revenge. The glare she shot me said it all, she was going to try to destroy me. It was war and I was fine with that.

It became silent around us when Regina walked towards me, her high heels making a clicking sound on the floor. The other students seemed to just freeze during whatever trivial conversations they were having, their eyes following the Queen Bitch as she came to stop in front of me and my locker. I slammed it shut with a loud noise, which made a few people flinch, but Regina kept a straight face. Whatever she was feeling at this moment was buried under a thick layer of make-up and ice, but looking into her eyes I saw through that shell she had built around herself. The flicker of pain that was hidden behind them reminded me of myself four years ago, but it didn't make me sympathize with her or regret any of what I had done. Instead, it just further encouraged me to be an asshole.

"Took you five days to find a make-up strong enough to cover up the lines of tears on your face, Regina?" I commented, looking directly at her.

She narrowed her eyes at me and if looks could kill, I would have dropped dead on the spot. "I always thought you were smarter than that, Gold." Her lips curved up into a small, deadly smile as she spoke.

"What can I say? I'm not really the relationship type, dearie," I retorted, watching her closely as if she was a hurricane just about to be unleashed. And in a way, she was.

I could see how she worked hard to find some sort of reply that would insult me in any way or at least leave me speechless, but I was pretty sure she would have no such luck. It took a lot to really get to me and I was fairly certain that Regina Mills had no idea where to poke and prod to hit on a raw nerve. She would, without doubt, try to find out and that was why I had to be at least semi-careful.

"I noticed that. You seemed inexperienced," she finally said, running a hand gracefully through her short, dark hair. The sexual innuendo of course didn't go unnoticed by me or our bystanders. My lips curved up into a mischievous smirk at her pathetic attack against my ego. It wasn't that easily destroyed.

"Really?" I asked with an amused undertone in my voice, "Because you were loud enough for the two of us." I didn't miss the soft pink flush that rose up her cheeks or the fury in her dark eyes that only grew wilder each time I spoke. Before she could verbally strike back, however, I added: "Is there anything else you want? If you came to drop on your knees and beg me to take you back, hurry up, because I have other important things to attend to."

A moment followed in which we simply stared at each other. Outstanders would have easily misinterpreted our little power struggle for foreplay and come to think of it, it probably wasn't that far from the truth. To some extent, the air between us was filled with a good amount of pure, dazzling chemistry and under different circumstances, this might have very well lead to a round of purely angry sex. But we were very well aware of our surroundings and the part of Regina that wanted to strangle me right now was most likely a lot stronger than the part that wanted to rip my pants off.

"I suggest you watch your back, Gold." The maleficence in her voice would have sent a wave of cold chills down my spine if I hadn't been about as ruthless as Regina. She shot another derogatory look my way which I replied to with a simple smirk, then she walked away.

The rest of the day went by as usual, people were mostly avoiding me or giving me brief looks when they thought I wasn't paying attention to them. They were all talking about my break-up with Regina, but as soon as I walked past them, they went silent. Out of fear or respect, I didn't care. To be honest, I was seeking both. Being on top of the world and looking down on everyone else, that was my thing. And during the past four years, I had perfected it.

A sudden bump into my side took me by surprise and had me stumble back. The girl that had run into me in the hallway hadn't been able to keep her balance and fell to the ground, alongside with the four books and the purse she had been carrying. "I am so sorry," she immediately exclaimed, looking up at me as she began to gather her stupid books and purse. I raised an eyebrow, my expression displaying nothing but annoyance at the fact that she had run into me. Lacey Isabelle French. She was a junior, but most students knew who she was. She wasn't one of the popular girls, but her outstanding beauty was hard to miss. Her skin was pale and her eyes light blue, which created an amazing contrast to her long, brown hair that fell over her shoulder in light curls.

During my fake relationship, Regina had bitched about Lacey French's natural beauty many times. Jealousy and Envy were just two of Regina's long list of bad and utterly annoying character traits. I didn't pay much attention when she told me for the tenth time how she wished her eyes were as blue as Lacey's or how she would give anything to have longer hair. The only reason why Lacey French had never made it to number 1 of Regina's most hated students at Noble High list was that she didn't care about popularity at all. Lacey was, if anything, a strange girl. She had either never realized how strong of a weapon her looks could be or she didn't care. There was no doubt that if she wasn't so busy sitting alone in a corner reading books, she could have easily become one of the most popular girls at this school. But as it was, she was just a nobody. A damn beautiful one, but a nobody nevertheless.

"Watch where you're going." She was obviously taken aback by my rather harsh reply, but I didn't give two cents about what she was shocked about. I wasn't here to play nice and friendly with someone who was of no use to me.

Instead of just taking her things and walking away, she stood up and took a moment to look into my eyes. If she was trying to figure me out, she might as well just give up. There was no mystery for her to be unsolved. If anything, her staring at me like that angered me.

And then it hit me. She was the key to further humiliate Regina. As of now, the Queen Bitch was hurt, but more than that she was furious. I had seen it during our little exchange earlier. She was planning her next strike against me, but if I could beat her to it, I would once again make it clear to her that she would never be able to 'win'. And thus, I would send a message through the entire High school that it was better not to mess with me.

And what would be a better move than to start 'fake' dating the one girl Regina was so jealous of so shortly after our break-up? It would devastate and irritate her at the same time. Getting to sleep with the beautiful Lacey French was only the bonus. As the wheels in my head were turning, I barely noticed that Lacey had moved past me and was walking off. I let her go for now, but I would have her soon. I was determined to make her mine.


	2. Let's make a deal, dearie

Lacey's POV

"Hey Lacey. What are you reading?"

The sudden voice pulled me out of the story I was in and back to reality. I glanced up from the book in my hands and blinked a few times as the brightness of the sun was dazzling my eyes. It was one of these warm spring days, the kind you were waiting for all winter. During free period, I had taken my blue fuzzy blanket outside with me and settled down on the school campus with a sandwich and a book, ready to fully enjoy the warm rays of sun on my skin. And I had, until the peaceful harmony had been interrupted by Sean Gaston, who was basically a dark cloud on a sunny day. At least for me.

Slowly closing my book, I looked up at him and his incredible amount of muscle mass. He was tall and strong, and at times, he seemed almost intimidating. He was one of the jocks and pretty popular with a lot of the girls at this school. When he walked past them, they begin giggling and whispering in such an obnoxious way that even I noticed it. It wasn't like I couldn't see why they liked him. He was certainly handsome, with his green eyes, his sand blond hair and, well, the muscles. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't the brightest and his interests were so far from my own, that he wasn't my type. Unfortunately for me, I seemed to be exactly his. And he wasn't one of the boys who took no for an answer. He had an oversized ego to feed. Maybe he even thought I enjoyed him chasing after me. Truth was that I absolutely didn't, and I had tried to make that clear to him many times.

"Shakespeare,"I replied briefly, watching as he took another step towards me before sitting down on my blanket. My right hand reached to grasp a strand of my long, brown hair and I began nervously twirling it between my fingers. I felt completely uncomfortable that he was so close to me. He, on the other hand, didn't seem to care or mind at all.

"Uh. Well, I prefer my beer in liquid form," he responded, a wide smile appearing on his face. "What is Shakesbeer about?"

I slightly bit my lip and looked down at the book in my hands. "Shakespeare is the author, not the title."

"Well, there are far more interesting things in this world than books, Lacey."

I didn't like how his face was now even closer to mine or how he suddenly took the book from me. Scooting away from him a little, I looked up at again. "Can I have that back, please?" My gaze went over to the book that was now in his hand. He furrowed his eyebrows at me and held it up, so I couldn't reach it.

"If you go on a date with me, beautiful Lacey."

Before I could tell him that that wasn't going to happen, someone else did. "Give the book back, Gaston. You wouldn't be able to read it if you tried."

Neither of us had noticed that Gold had walked up to us and was now standing behind Gaston with an emotionless expression on his face. Upon being interrupted during what he would probably call 'flirting', Gaston put my book on the blanket and turned around, looking up at Robert Gold. Gaston might have been stupid, but he wasn't stupid enough to not recognize a direct insult like this. Anger burning in his eyes, he got up. He was taller than the other boy and even though Gold wasn't physically weak, Gaston had a lot more muscles.

I didn't realize that I was holding my breath when the two of them looked at each other. It was like watching two equally strong predators circle each other, just waiting for a chance to jump forward and attack. Gaston might have more muscle mass, but Gold was more popular, which in a way made him 'untouchable'. A lot of students feared and respected him and even though Gaston might have denied it, he had a fair amount of same fear and respect in him as well. And that was probably why, after a good minute of silently glaring at Gold, he averted his eyes and just walked away with his head held high, acting as if he had better things to do anyway.

Gold smirked and sat down on the blanket next to me just like Gaston had minutes before. I eyed him suspiciously, but didn't say anything. I didn't feel comfortable with either of them next to me. From what I had seen, they were both rude assholes who didn't waste a moment thinking about anyone's feelings. They walked through the school with their egos bigger than anything else, thinking they owned the place.

"Care about going on a date with me?" he broke the silence between us and my eyes widened a bit. I'm not sure what I had expected him to say, but it wasn't this. It took me a moment to actually process his question. We had never really talked before. A day ago I had literally run into him in the hallways and he had treated me like I was some annoying bug. And now he was interested in going out with me? People often called me naïve and it was true, but I wasn't completely foolish. If Gold wanted to date me, it wasn't because he honestly wanted to get to know me. I truly doubted that there was anything remotely 'honest' about this boy.

"No."

He didn't seem too surprised by my answer. Judging from his expression, he had already expected me to say something like this, which made me further wonder why he had even bothered to ask. The smile on his face grew slightly bigger and he leaned forward to me. "And why not, dearie?" The amused tone in his voice made it even harder for me to believe that he was serious about anything here.

"Because I don't care about you and how could I? I have seen how you treated Regina at that party. You made clear to everyone that you just used her while she truly liked you. That night you didn't just break up with her in front of everyone. You humiliated her. You took her heart and you crushed it." I wasn't sure where my sudden outburst was coming from. I hadn't known until now how much watching the whole cruel scene that evening had bugged me. And now that he had asked me why I would never go out with him, why I could never like him, I suddenly had a chance to tell him what kind of a terrible human being he was. "Because you are rude, heartless and selfish."

I was surprised about my own words. Did I even have a right to tell him all that when I barely knew him? But I had seen him around people and there had never been a good moment, never. I lowered my gaze and waited for his reaction, waited for him to defend himself and tell me that I was wrong. Or yell at me, something like that. What I didn't expect was an amused chuckle. "You're a smart girl, dearie."

I brought my eyes up to his again, giving him an unbelieving look. I couldn't find a flicker of hurt caused by anything I had said and it both confused and shocked me how someone could be so cold and unaffected. He was probably the most ruthless boy I had ever met.

"But I guess that's something we have in common then. You don't care about me and I don't care about you. But I can do something for you and you can do something for me." His words were calm and his gaze never left mine. I pursed my lips a little as I looked back at him. I doubted that I wanted anything to do with him, no matter what he was going to suggest.

"I know that Gaston has been bothering you for months now and I seriously doubt that you like him. I can protect you from him."

He was paying attention to what was going on around him, I had to give him that. It was probably part of the 'how' he had even managed to become so popular. Sure, he was rich, but he was also smart and not a jock. On top of that, he was rude and a complete loner. The popular people were usually quite the opposite, they surrounded themselves with as many friends as they could, real or not. It was a big factor of why everyone respected him so much. He wasn't your typical 'popular' school boy. He was different, but when it came to being an ass, he seemed to be just like everyone else.

And yes, Gaston was pushy and sometimes he scared me a bit. He was still patient with me, but he was the type of boy who was determined to eventually get what he wanted. I could see that and it worried me a little. I certainly didn't want to ever run into him when we were alone. I didn't trust that he wouldn't try to do something I didn't agree on. Yet, I was too proud and good to agree to helping Gold for protection in return. If he didn't care about me, it wasn't that hard to guess why he really wanted to go out with me: to further humiliate Regina. I wasn't sure why he hated her so much or what he was trying to achieve by kicking her when she was already on the ground, but I didn't agree with it. And I wasn't going to play any part in it just because I might have been a bit scared of Gaston.

"Gaston is my problem and I'll deal with him myself." I paused, then added: "You want a 'fake' relationship with me to get back at Regina? Why?"

Once again, his lips curved into a smile. "You are absolutely right, dearie." Then, he shrugged and chuckled. "It's all for power."

"Why does power mean so much to you?"

"Because if you have it, no one can hurt you." A flicker of something went through his eyes, but before I could figure out what it was, it was gone. "You become 'untouchable'." He grinned widely and I found myself shaking my head.

"I am not going to help you hurt Regina more than you already have."

"Regina isn't the 'victim' here, dearie. She's just as cold and manipulative as I am."

"Maybe," I said hesitantly and picked up my book to stuff it into my purse. "But I want nothing to do with your power play or whatever it is you are doing."

And with that being said, the conversation was over for me. Gold was smart enough to see that he didn't have a chance to get me to cooperate with him. He stood up and turned around. "You might change your mind soon," he commented, before he walked away. I didn't think much of it. Gold seemed like the type of person who just needed to have the last word. And I let him.

The following two days went by without any major occurrences. I came to the conclusion that Gold had given up trying to get me to play a part in whatever plans he had. I didn't even think about it much anymore, I had borrow a new book from the library and the story had already completely caught me. I was so entangled in the fantasy world of the book I was reading when I got home after school that I didn't even notice my dad's car in the driveway.

I got suspicious when the front door wasn't locked like it usually was when I came home from school. My father worked as kitchen Chef in a hotel and never got off until late at night, which was why I always had to remember to bring my key. Had he forgotten to lock the door when he left?

With a bad feeling in my stomach, I opened the door and walked into our house. Seconds later, I heard a sound coming from the kitchen. "Daddy?" I hurried over to the table he was sitting at, in front of him a shot glass and a bottle of Vodka. The initial feeling that something was wrong only intensified at the sight of him. He looked … devastated. It reminded me of how he was after mom died and back then I hoped I would never see him like that again. It was, of course, nothing more than wishful thinking on my part.

"What happened?" I asked softly while taking the Vodka away from him and putting it back on the shelf. He didn't protest and when I turned around to look at him, he was still in the exact same position, staring at the opposite wall.

"I got fired."

"What?" My eyes widened in shock upon hearing these news. I honestly couldn't imagine what could have possibly gone wrong, as I had always known my father to be an excellent Chef who didn't allow room for any mistakes.

"That hotel gala the other night – the food from our kitchen was..." He paused, playing with the empty shot glass on the table in front of him. "Something was wrong with the entree soup and the guests complained."

I bit my lip and sat down next to him. He still wouldn't look at me. "We might lose the house, Lacey."

I swallowed hard, mainly because of the sorrowful tone in my father's voice. We had been in debt before, but with his job at the hotel, we had always managed to keep our heads above water. Him getting fired was about the worst thing that could have happened to us right now.

Still, there was something about the whole story that irked me. I couldn't put my finger on what exactly it was that had all my inner alarm clocks going off at the same time. I furrowed my eyebrows and ran a hand through my hair. "Don't worry, daddy. We'll figure something out." I paused and stared at the ceiling. "How did you not notice that the soup tasted weird?"

To my understanding, the Chef always made sure the food tasted alright before okay-ing it to be taken out to the guests.

"I don't know." My father buried his head in his hands and sighed. "I don't know what happened. The soup tasted fine to me, but when they brought it back in, it was bitter."

"Like someone had messed with it after your okay?" My eyes widened, but he shook his head. "Why would anyone do that?"

"To get you fired." All of a sudden, I had a lump in my throat that wouldn't go away. I got up from my seat, because I couldn't sit still anymore.

"You're creating drama where there is none, Lacey," I heard my father's voice. He must have noticed all the color leaving my cheeks. But was I really being paranoid? The hotel was owned by Robert Gold's father.


End file.
